Canada is the seventh happiest place in the world, according to an annual UN report and one if its co-authors, Jeffrey Sachs, says the ranking is good news for Canada.

“People in Canada are happy and Canada is one of the happiest places in the world and I understand why,” Sachs told iPolitics in an interview at the University of Ottawa.

Jeffrey Sachs AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File

Sachs is a professor at Columbia University, the director of the Centre for Sustainable Development, a senior UN advisor and world renowned economist.

The report, published last month, ranked Finland as the world’s happiest country. The United States landed at 18, down from 14 the year before.

“Canada is prosperous, it’s relatively inclusive, it’s paying attention to sustainable development and social networks work here, life expectancy is high, the universal health coverage is a successful policy, so I think there are ample reasons why Canada ranks well,” said Sachs.

Another theory, he said, is that Canada is at a high latitude.

“All of the top countries are the high latitude [countries] and somethings working up here,” Sachs laughed. After Finland, Norway ranks as the second happiest country, followed by Denmark and Iceland.

“I do think seriously that Canada reflects a good balance of open, prosperous, democratic society, a lot fairer than the United States, politics works a lot better, social equilibrium is higher, tolerance is higher. Of course not everything is perfect, but Canada earns its place near the top of the list.”

The study also explored the happiness of migrants and found that the 10 happiest countries also ranked the highest on immigrant happiness, which shows that migrants’ wellbeing was tied to the quality of life in their new home.

Sachs called Canada a “world leader” when it comes to tolerance for immigrants.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

“That’s a wonderful attribute of Canadian politics and Canadian society, but integrating a highly diverse population is a lot of work and, on the whole, Canada does an outstanding job of it, but it does mean that inequality is higher here than in some other cases but much lower than in the United States.”

Canada fell below the Scandinavian countries because there is still more inequality here, said Sachs. While Canada does have a more inclusive social welfare than the United States, it has its continuing social and health challenges among First Nations communities.

We do have a more inclusive social welfare state than the United Sates, he said, and that’s why the “situation is better here.”

Sachs said a lot of journalists wanted to know why the U.S. is falling in the “happiness” category. He said the report is meant to trigger important questions and encourage countries to ask “what does this mean for our society? What does this mean for our politics…our policy framework?”

“I’m constantly saying in the United States, ‘look at Canada, look at northern Europe, learn something. And this is something that I want to continue to deepen because I think direct comparisons can help,” said Sachs. Fifteen years ago the U.S. ranked in the top ten.

“Our society is in crisis… we have a crisis of trust, a lack of trust in each other and a lack of trust in government, a rising perception of corruption, a loss of faith in a lot of institutions,” he said, adding that he pointed those aspects out in last year’s report.

This year, there are also three heath crises to add to the mix: obesity, drug abuse and specifically opioid addiction and a rise in depression.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

“I take those to be symptoms of other social ills and bad politics in the U.S. right now. Too much corporate power, too much inequality of income, too much specific abuse by companies in the fast food industry or in the pharmaceutical industry [which has] in fact made Americans sick and not better.”

So why measure happiness? Well, counters Sachs, why measure GDP?

Presumably we think that GDP is a measure of people’s well being, said Sachs, but another way to assess wellbeing is to ask people.

“By asking people about wellbeing you uncover paradoxes like the U.S. where the country is rich but people don’t feel so good.”

That paradox uncovers underlying factors of well being and unearths what’s going wrong in the country, he explained, adding that it becomes a diagnostic tool to say that maybe America’s crisis isn’t economic, maybe it’s social, or to do with inequality and public health.

“That’s what I’m hoping to do in the U.S., to help prompt that deeper discussion.”

Next Sachs wants to measure happiness by region in the U.S. He suspects northern states to be better off and happier than the south.

“We would probably find New England the highest ranking part of the U.S. because it’s the best governed and the place closest to Canada in spirit actually.”

“I’m thinking it’s quite important to make the comparison with Canada also because Canada gives a lot of good signals and it will be interesting to know whether Canada’s immediate state neighbours are actually in a similar situation.”